September 02, 1998

Development of Warren County’s proposed soccer field and school transportation facility will have to wait because the Board of Supervisors won’t be able to buy part of the old Avtex Fibers property for at least six months.

The county proceeded with plans last week to buy about 100 acres near Kendrick Lane in Front Royal that it hoped to develop for recreational and maintenance use and to house a transportation complex.

But legal red tape has stalled the process, County Attorney Douglas W. Napier told the supervisors on Tuesday.

"We’re just caught up in the process right now," he said.

Avtex fibers, which made rayon, shut its doors in 1989 after nearly 2,000 pollution violations. Because Avtex is a Superfund site, the Environmental Protection Agency can hold any owner of it liable for cleanup costs.

According to Napier, the county is seeking a purchase agreement with the EPA that would shield it from any cleanup costs or lawsuit involving pollution remediation.

" No one wants to touch it unless we’re protected," he said.

County Administrator R. Edward Duncan said the county had previously discussed the terms of an agreement, but officials never considered such an agreement to be crucial to the settlement process.

He said the county also was hesitant to become involved until the Chicago-based FMC Corp., a previous owner of the land, the Justice Department and the EPA set the terms of the cleanup.

"It wasn’t in the county’s interest to get involved until negotiations between the Justice Department and FMC were established," he said.

The Justice Department would be responsible for enforcing any cleanup agreement involving the site.

Napier said the department must sigh the purchase agreement before the county can proceed with its plans to buy the land. But because of the department’s fragile negotiations with FMC over who should pay the cleanup costs, it won’t sign any agreement until negotiations are complete, he said.

"They told us they will not sign the agreement because they are afraid they will damage their negotiation position with FMC, so there was no point in submitting it," he said.

Napier said the county will prepare the necessary paperwork but won’t submit it to the bankruptcy court until the Justice Department makes a decision.

"The process is long and tedious," he said. "It takes six weeks in bankruptcy court and up to six months after that."For community members who have been working to redevelop the site, the delay is frustrating.

Fred Foster, chairman of the Warren County Redevelopment Corporation, called the delay a major setback.